In 1985, the RAC Rally once again brought the curtain down on the World Rally Championship season. With the title already decided, the best drivers on Earth went all-out for victory over the 65 stages and more than 560 competitive miles of the Lombard RAC. This action-packed highlights programme follows the action from the safari parks and stately homes of the opening stages to the forests of Wales and Yorkshire.
The Peugeot 205 T16 of World Champion Timo Salonen and the Audi Quattro S1 of Hannu Mikkola were expected to battle for the victory, but the RAC is never predictable. What developed was a thrilling fight between two World Rally newcomers.
The Lancia Delta S4 and Metro 6R4 made their WRC debuts at this event, and quickly demonstrated the performance which would make them icons. The opening stages were dominated by Lancia's Group B 'supercars' of Markku Alen and Henri Toivonen, while the 6R4s of British heroes Tony Pond and Malcolm Wilson were straight on the pace and pressuring the leaders.
The Peugeots and Audis fought back, but the challenging forests of Wales ended the hopes of Salonen and Mikkola. That left Alen, Pond and Toivonen to battle for the win, setting up a thrilling finale that saw the irrepressible Toivonen charge through the field to take an unexpected, but thoroughly deserved, victory.
This programme is packed with awesome action footage from around Britain, and fascinating interviews with Pond, Toivonen, Salonen and other stars.
RAC Rally 1985 is part of a collectable set of classic RAC Rally highlights programmes. |